Scottish Executive

Antisocial Behaviour

Maureen Macmillan (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that local authorities consult retailers when developing their antisocial behaviour strategies.

Cathy Jamieson: The Scottish Executive will issue guidance on Part 1 (antisocial behaviour strategies) of the Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Act 2004. The guidance will make it clear that local authorities and their partners should consult relevant business organisations, particularly those in areas of significant antisocial behaviour, when developing and reviewing their antisocial behaviour strategies.

Culture

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to Ofcom regarding the granting of new radio licences and the operation and regulation of radio stations, in particular in respect of a quota for the amount of airtime allocated to Scottish artistes.

Ms Patricia Ferguson: The granting of new radio licences and the regulation of radio stations is a reserved matter. Ofcom is the regulator for the UK communications industries, with responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services. In assessing radio licence applications, Ofcom must have regard (amongst other matters) to the statutory criteria contained in Section 105 of the Broadcasting Act 1990, as amended, when it is deciding whether, or to whom, to award a local commercial radio licence. One of the criteria is the extent to which any proposed service would cater for the tastes and interests of those living in the area or locality for which the service would be provided.

  The Executive is keen that the broadcasting media should reflect Scotland’s rich cultural diversity. However, we are not convinced that content regulation should extend to the compulsory broadcasting on all radio stations of particular types of entertainment and have made no representations to Ofcom to this effect.

  An Advisory Committee for Scotland has been established to provide advice to Ofcom about the interests and opinions of people living in Scotland on all communications matters, and the Ofcom Content Board has one member who is appointed to represent Scottish interests. License awards are dealt with by a radio licensing committee which is a sub-committee of the Content Board. The regular radio licensing committee will have 2 additional members with specific knowledge of and interest in the Scottish radio sector to help them with the award of the recently advertised Edinburgh FM licence.

  We believe these are the appropriate mechanisms by which to establish arrangements for regulation of content.

Disclosure Scotland

Shiona Baird (North East Scotland) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive whether Disclosure Scotland is meeting its service level target to process 90% of applications within 14 calendar days.

Cathy Jamieson: The service level target of processing 90% of applications within 14 calendar days relates to applications for Standard and Enhanced Disclosures which are correctly completed, have the appropriate payment and do not require enquiries to be made of police forces for any additional information. At week ending 10 October 2004, 97% of applications in this category were processed within the target and the average time taken was 3.5 days. Disclosure Scotland has been meeting its service level target since week-ending 15 August 2004. For Basic Disclosures, 100% were processed in an average time of 3.5 days during week-ending 10 October.

Disclosure Scotland

Shiona Baird (North East Scotland) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications Disclosure Scotland has taken more than 30 days to process, expressed also as a percentage of the total number of applications, and how long it will take to clear the backlog.

Cathy Jamieson: Disclosure Scotland has cleared the backlog of applications which had built up earlier this year.

  Information about the number of applications processed in more than 30 days is not available at present. We are, however, examining with Disclosure Scotland how a wider range of performance information can be made available in future.

Housing

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many homes have been built in each of the last five years on land owned by (a) it, (b) the Ministry of Defence, (c) Executive agencies, (d) non-departmental public bodies and (e) any other public body.

Malcolm Chisholm: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

  The information requested is not held centrally. Records of previous owners are available through the Register of Sasines/Land Register, but that only highlights the sale of the land from seller to purchaser and not the subsequent number of homes constructed on this land.

Justice

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-9014 by Cathy Jamieson on 25 June 2004, why it is satisfied that the composition of the proposed new UK Supreme Court will enable Scottish cases to receive a fair hearing under the requirements of Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

Cathy Jamieson: The Constitutional Reform Bill makes provision to establish the Supreme Court. It does so with full regard to the requirements of the ECHR.

  Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights requires that, in determination of civil rights and obligations, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law. The Supreme Court will give a fair and public hearing, it will do so within a reasonable time and its judges are to be appointed and hold office in a way which fully meets the requirements of ECHR in relation to judicial independence.

  Once in operation the President of the Court will decide the composition of panels of judges most appropriate for each case. In doing so it will take account of the need for particular knowledge or expertise. This will include Scots law and procedure. The proposals for the Supreme Court are flexible enough to allow, as now, for Scottish majorities through the use of additional judges from the Court of Session.

Justice

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the letter from the Minister for Justice to Dr Norman Watson on 15 September 2004 regarding posthumous pardons for convicted suffragettes, what information it has on why such pardons are, according to Home Office officials, not appropriate for use of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy and what measures it will take to recognise the achievements of the women’s suffragette movement.

Cathy Jamieson: A decision to recommend the use of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy to grant a free pardon is limited to cases where no court based remedy is available, or where new evidence, not previously heard by the courts, has arisen which demonstrates beyond any doubt that no offence was committed, or that the person concerned did not commit the crime. The effect of a free pardon is that the conviction is disregarded to the extent that, as far as possible, the person is relieved of all penalties and other consequences of the conviction. Only the courts have the power to quash a conviction, and the criteria adopted in considering whether to make a recommendation to Her Majesty to grant a free pardon have proper regard to the constitutional position that the courts decide whether a person is guilty of an offence, and not the Government.

  The First Minister has asked for consideration to be given to an appropriate way of recognising the contribution made by the Women’s Suffrage movement to the development of democracy as we know it today. Options are currently being considered by Ministers.

Libraries

Michael Matheson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many books have been lost from the National Library of Scotland in each of the last five years, shown also as a percentage of the library’s book collection.

Ms Patricia Ferguson: The National Library of Scotland’s records show that the following numbers of items could not be located in response to readers’ requests for them:

  

Year
Number of Items
% of Total


2000
27
0.0003


2001
62
0.0008


2002
57
0.0008


2003
32
0.0003


2004 to date
8
0.0001



  There are 8 million books and 1.6 million maps in the Library’s collections; the total loss over the five years therefore represents less than 0.003%.

Libraries

Michael Matheson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many books have been permanently damaged in the National Library of Scotland in each of the last five years, shown also as a percentage of the library’s book collection.

Ms Patricia Ferguson: The National Library of Scotland considers that no book in its collections has been permanently damaged in any of the last five years. Books in the collections are of course susceptible to damage through general wear and tear as readers consult them over the years, but these books are all subject to remedial treatment by the Library’s skilled conservators.

  An independent assessment of the Library’s collections by the National Preservation Office showed the following results:

  98% of library stock were in good condition

  1.5% of library stock were in fair condition

  0.5% of library stock were in poor condition

  No books were found to be unusable

  The number of items in the Library’s collections receiving treatment (including book-cleaning) over the last 5 years is shown in the following table:

  

Year
Number of books
% of total


2000-01
122,079
1.5


2001-02
190,913
2.4


2002-03
203,042
2.5


2003-04
23,156
0.3

Libraries

Michael Matheson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people attempted to remove materials from the National Library of Scotland in each of the last five years.

Ms Patricia Ferguson: I asked Martyn Wade, the National Librarian, to respond. His response is as follows:

  51 readers have been stopped by Library security staff over the last five years with a total of 65 collection items between them. It is unclear, however, whether these were deliberate attempts to remove material from the Library or simply an oversight on their part. The breakdown is as follows:

  2000 - 15 people - 17 books

  2001 - 7 people - 8 books

  2002 - 9 people - 10 books

  2003 - 11 people - 14 books

  2004 - 9 people 11 books to date.

Parliamentary Questions

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied with the quality of response provided by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to parliamentary questions, in particular whether responses answer the question asked and are worded in order to provide the information sought and, if not, whether it will direct the SPS to make any necessary improvements in the responses it provides.

Cathy Jamieson: The Scottish Prison Service provides available information in response to PQs. I am happy for members to contact the Chief Executive of SPS to discuss particular issues in more detail.

Pensions

John Swinburne (Central Scotland) (SSCUP): To ask the Scottish Executive what initiatives it has implemented, either independently or in collaboration with Her Majesty’s Government, to increase awareness of pensions by young people.

Malcolm Chisholm: None.

Police

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many hours, on average, were spent by police officers on patrol in the streets in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

Cathy Jamieson: This information is not held centrally and is a matter for individual chief constables.

Police

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many new police recruits there were in each year since 1997, broken down by constabulary.

Cathy Jamieson: The information requested is shown in the following table.

  

Police Force
1997-98
1998-99
1999-00
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04


Central Scotland
49
35
26
39
16
49
40


Dumfries & Galloway 
39
20
22
46
23
19
24


Fife
65
27
41
50
94
61
84


Grampian
85
100
25
115
56
67
125


Lothian & Borders
80
32
64
189
157
131
198


Northern
35
21
23
45
45
30
31


Strathclyde
343
91
257
503
312
446
415


Tayside
75
42
38
66
67
47
49


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Scotland
771
368
496
1,053
770
850
966



  Source: Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s Annual Statistical Returns from police forces.

Prison Service

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive why the Scottish Prison Service’s annual report for 2003-04 has not yet been published.

Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

  The Scottish Prison Service Annual Report 2003-04 was laid before Parliament on 14 October 2004, and was published on 15 October 2004.

Prison Service

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many vacancies there are for probation officers, broken down by grade and how many probation officers have left the Scottish Prison Service in each financial year.

Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

  SPS do not employ probation officers.